The function of Berserker cells revolves around the spreading and assimilation of surrounding material, organic or inorganic, to create and become a fully autonomous weapon of mass destruction designed for conquest and annihilation.

Left unchecked the Berserker will continue consuming and growing exponentially until it has devoured or destroyed everything within its attack range, which tends to expand further onward and outward as it continues to assimilate. Its was intended to be infiltrated into enemy territory to unleash an unstoppable force of destruction to decimate enemy forces and their infrastructure. It is unstoppable by conventional means, requiring special nanoagents such as collapser to destroy the Berserker at the cellular level.

If and when it is connected to a functioning brain the Berserker can take on a life a semi-sentience of its own, able to take on the appearance of just about anything the brain designs for itself. The Berserker becomes whatever it draws into itself, acquiring new and innovative means of attack.

Several years before he found Alita in the Tiphares dump heap, Daisuke Ido found a crashed warship in the bottom of a ravine west of the Scrapyard. While exploring it, Ido found an intact cyborg body. Recognising the superior technology and craftsmanship involved, he was driven to study the body and transported it back to his clinic. However when he examined it Ido soon realised that the body, which he dubbed the Berserker Body, was built solely for destruction. He locked it away in the basement to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.